Gap Mills cemetery
After Al sent the message, he said, “Let’s get out of here before some Amish dude figures out we’re snooping around.”
“Good,” Vance said, flicking his cigarette onto the ground.
They made their way back to the car and both climbed in. Vance started it, headed to the main road and drove west, back the way they came. After a few minutes, Vance asked, “When do you think Ed will answer?”
Just as Al was going to answer him his PDA buzzed, “Maybe now,” he said, glancing at it.
“Well?”
“You’re not going to like this. They want us to dig it up.”
“Are you serious?”
Al bit his lip, “Yeah, the forwarded message from Ed says that the layout of the cemetery is a Masonic lodge and the square block is a symbolic cornerstone. We need to find out what is under it.”
Vance sighed, “With what, our bare hands?”
Another message came in, “It says McCoumb is bringing shovels.”
“Damn it,” Vance responded. “I hate cemeteries.”
An hour later, they met a soldier on the side of the road and he handed over two shovels, a crowbar, and some rope, and drove off. They then re-entered the cemetery under the cover of darkness. There was not a single light nearby, so the only light to dig by came from their small flashlights.
“Seriously, man,” Vance whispered, protesting. “Are we really going to do this?”
“I know,” Al whispered back, “grave robbing is not exactly in your job description, but it sure as hell is in mine.”
“In all my years in the military and CIA,” Vance added, “I have yet to dig up a grave and, to be honest, this shit is giving me the creeps.”
Al laughed quietly, “Aw c’mon, you haven’t lived until you’ve dug up someone else’s relatives, especially when they are only a few yards away.”
“Fine, let’s just get on with it and then get the hell out of here.”
Al led the way across the road and into the minefield of tombstones. He kept his hand over the light, in hopes no one would see it. He let out just enough light so as not to trip over a tombstone. Slowly, they made their way over to the northeast corner and crouched down.
Vance placed his tool next to the stone block and with the light Al examined the bottom edges, looking for a place to start digging. He felt around the entire square base; it was solidly in place with no gaps.
“I hope this doesn’t extend much farther underground,” he whispered. “I can’t grip the bottom.”
Vance jammed the shovel into the grass and started digging. They continued removing dirt around the edge until the bottom of the block was visible. Al shoved his fingers under it, “That’s not as bad as I thought.”
He shoved his fingers deeper and felt more smooth stone, “Okay, I take that back.”
“What?”
Al aimed the light and said, “Dig there.”
Vance shoved the shovel in deeper, scooping out dirt several times until he hit something solid. He stood back, leaning on his shovel out of breath, “Can we go now?”
Al aimed the light into the hole, illuminating the side of a flat stone piece that extended down. “Shit, this block goes deep.”
“Hold on,” Vance said, holding his light on it. “I see a seam.”
Al ran his fingers along it. “If this is a seam, then this block is a lid.
“You mean a lid on a stone coffin,” Vance added.
“I don’t know, but if Ed wants us to find out what is under this thing I’ll bet you it’s not a coffin.”
They continued digging until Vance was able to slip in the crowbar. He pushed down using the grass and dirt as a lever and the lid raised a half inch. Al sat down on the grass and used his feet to push it over while Vance lifted. With each attempt, they were able to move it over a couple of inches. Al got up and shot his light inside. Immediately he noticed a black book and a metal object next to it. Directly below that he could see the top of a skull and two leg bones placed in an ‘X’ below it. “You lucked out,” he said.
Vance glanced at it, “Yeah, just a couple bones, that’s good.”
“Well, okay,” Al said. “If that’s it, let’s get it and close this thing up.”
Vance got on his knees and reached inside, “Fine by me.”
“Gently, dude.”
Vance lifted the book and metal item out and put them to the side. Al leaned back in and gave the container a quick inspection for clues or anything. Not seeing any, they spent the next several minutes pushing the heavy block back over the container. After patching up as much of the dirt around the edges as they could, they exited the cemetery.
Once they were at a safe distance and confirmed that no one was following them, Al placed the thin book and odd-shaped skeleton key on his lap. The key was twice the size of a typical skeleton key and had a large hand grip attached.
“Looks like brass knuckles,” Vance commented.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Al replied, slipping his hand into the grip. He made his hand into a fist and simulated shoving the key into a hole and turning, “This must be for a hell-of-a-hard-to-open lock to add this much leverage to it.”
Vance grumbled and Al knew he had just walked right into one of Vance’s jokes. “Whatever,” he said before Vance could respond, and pulled his hand out of the key grip. He then examined the black book. There was no writing anywhere on the cover or spine so he opened it. As he did, the cover creaked loudly since it had not been touched in who knows how long. Parts of the black cover flaked off and looked to be made of tanned animal hide of some type. It had an old book smell and once opened the first words he saw were Hebrew. The letters were large and handwritten directly in the center of the page.
“There you go,” Vance said. “Right up your alley.”
“Yeah, my Hebrew is not so good,” he replied, running his finger over the page. It had a thick, soft feel unlike normal paper. He slowly turned the page and the handwritten Hebrew continued, starting on the right side of the page and going down. He looked closely at it for a few minutes and said, “This looks like a list.”
“Of what?”
“I can’t tell.” He turned the page, noticing the same pattern of handwritten Hebrew. He turned the page again and saw the same pattern. Flipping through, he counted twelve pages, each with the same type of list.
Vance continued driving, “Well, what is it?”
Al closed the book and answered, “I have no idea.” He then took a picture of the cover, the first page with the large writing, and a couple other pages with the list. He then placed the key on the cover and snapped a picture of it all to give Ed an idea of what they found. He then forwarded the pictures to Captain McCoumb. He looked closely at the writing again, noticing dots and dashes around the Hebrew characters. He closed the book and said, “I hope this is what they expected.”
Ed, Alex, and Natalie all waited with anticipation until the pictures came in. “Ah, here they are,” Ed said. “The note says a large book was under the cornerstone.”
“A book, a key, and a skull-and-crossbones,” Alex added, looking at the pictures.
Ed rubbed his chin as he analyzed the first two pictures. He scrolled through several more pictures and said, “Apparently the book is completely in Hebrew.”
Alex watched intently as Ed scrolled through the pictures and once he settled on the last one commented, “It’s a book of lists.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Ed acknowledged. He pushed himself back to allow Natalie to see.
She leaned in, took a quick look, sat back, and commented, “Strange looking key.”
“From what I can tell from these few pictures,” Ed said, “this list is in alphabetical order beginning with the Hebrew aleph and so on.”
Alex continued to examine the picture and added, “Almost like a cargo list with a key.”
“You know,” Ed said, looking closely at the Hebrew words, “I think you’re absolutely right; it is a cargo list.”
“Well,” Alex said, glancing at Natalie, “since we are shooting from the hip as you Americans would say...” He turned to Ed. “We should have the boys turn to the word...” he paused pulling the page over. He read it and said, “Have them turn to the page that would possibly have the word tavnit.”
“Brilliant idea,” Ed said.
As they were driving along, Al received a message from McCoumb. He read it and said, “Oh.”
“Oh, what?” Vance said.
Al turned on the flashlight and glanced down at the book, “They want me to turn to the word tavnit.”
“And how do they expect you to do that?”
“I have no idea,” Al said, but at that moment he received another message. He looked at it and showed Vance, “That’s how.”
Al spent several minutes scanning the pages for Hebrew words that began with the character Tav. He searched page after page until he found it and eventually the matching Hebrew word. He then squared the book away on his lap and snapped several close-up shots of the word tavnit and the writing next to it. He then forwarded the picture, shut off his light, and remained quiet for a moment. He suddenly became very tired and a warm wave of fatigue was begging for his attention.
Vance continued driving and eventually asked, “What’s up?”
“I’m so damn tired right now.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Al let the seat back a few inches, giving his head a chance to rest. With his eyes closed, he said, “I have a feeling we might have to head back.”